updated 07:36 pm EDT, Mon March 17, 2014

Study notes US education sales now up over $1B per quarter

Analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham and Company has focused on Apple's success in the education market in his latest note to investors. Pointing out that the company recently achieved EDU segment sales of over $1 billion per quarter, Wolf notes that Mac sales have held steady over the past seven years, including post-2010 when the iPad was introduced and became an extremely popular educational tool, eating into sales of other PCs.

Calling the ongoing Mac sales to the educational segment "nothing less than outstanding," Wolf offers the information as proof that "the iPad did not cannibalize Mac education sales" and said that in fact, Mac sales to education are up from the period before the iPad was introduced, indicating that schools have rediscovered the value of Macs -- particularly in conjunction with the iPad. From 2010 to 2013, Apple sold more than seven million iPads to US schools, and 5.3 million Macs, reports AppleInsider.

"The dramatic growth of iPad sales in the education market reflects the discovery by schools and universities of new uses for the iPad that were not possible with traditional PCs," Wolf said in the report. There is further evidence that iPad sales have hurt traditional PCs rather than Macs, with the iPad taking 94 percent share of the US educational market for tablets. During Apple's third fiscal quarter of 2013 (which falls during the spring), the company saw education sales top $1 billion, and is expected to duplicate and surpass the feat in its upcoming Q3 report later this year.